Foundation Repair in East Liverpool, OH

Where a lot slopes, that changes how the foundation is loaded. On a hillside lot, the uphill wall holds back more soil and more water than the downhill side, so it's often the wall that bows, cracks horizontally or leaks. Downhill corners are where settlement shows. Runoff from above, from the street, a neighbor's yard or your own downspouts, keeps that uphill soil wet and heavy.

Old stone walls fail differently from block. Mortar washes out of the joints over decades, stones loosen, and water and soil come through. Repointing and sealing the wall, and sometimes rebuilding a bulged section, is usually the repair. Block walls that bow are stabilized with anchors or braces. Either way, controlling the water from uphill, with drainage, regrading and downspouts carried well away, is part of any lasting fix.

Excavating next to an old wall on a slope has to be planned carefully, because removing soil changes the load the wall has carried for a century. That's one reason an assessment with measurements comes before any repair plan.